Super 8 (2011 - 10th Anniversary) Review

 

I don’t always get the chance to do a special ‘Anniversary’ review for a film, but for this year, there was one that I knew that I wanted to do since the film in question is one of my favorite films of all-time from one of my favorite directors. Said film came out on June 10^th, 2011, a little less than a year before I officially started this site in May of 2012. Thus, my original review for that film was on my old Rotten Tomatoes account and the only instances where I’ve ever addressed it on this site were A.) whenever I mention it as a part of its director’s filmography and B.) an incredibly old and thoroughly outdated post that I did in 2013 where I listed my Top 10 Favorite Films of 2011. But today, in honor of the 10^th anniversary of its release, it’s time for us to take a proper look at the 2011 sci-fi/monster adventure, Super 8. Super 8 was the third feature-length directorial outing from J.J. Abrams and was an original project that he made in-between the two Star Trek films that he directed, the franchise’s titular 2009 reboot and its 2013 sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness. Much of the film was inspired by Abrams’ experiences making Super 8 films when he was younger, including a notable run-in with none other than the legendary Steven Spielberg, who had once hired him to repair some of his old Super 8 reels. And if that wasn’t enough, Super 8 is produced by Spielberg via his production company, Amblin Entertainment. So, in other words, Super 8 can very much be described as a modern-day Spielberg film albeit one that wasn’t directed by the man himself. And while some have argued that its attempts at paying homage to the films that inspired it may have been a bit too much (which, ironically, wouldn’t be the only time that this argument has been applied to a J.J. Abrams film), it’s also one of the main reasons why this film has thoroughly stuck with me after all these years.

In 1979 in the town of Lillian, Ohio, teenager Joe Lamb (Joel Courtney) suffers a devastating tragedy when his mother Elizabeth (Caitriona Balfe) is killed in a steel factory accident. Several months later, Joe begins to help his best friend Charles Kaznyk (Riley Griffiths) produce a zombie film for a local Super 8 film competition along with their friends Cary McCarthy (Ryan Lee), Martin Reed (Gabriel Basso), and Zach Mills (Preston Scott). Charles also recruits the help of their classmate Alice Dainard (Elle Fanning) despite the intense animosity between her father Louis (Ron Eldard) and Joe’s father Jack (Kyle Chandler), the town’s Deputy Sheriff, for the former’s inadvertent role in Elizabeth’s death. While filming at a train station one night, they witness an Air Force train get into a head-on collision with a truck, and while they barely manage to survive the experience, something mysterious breaks free from the train that begins to cause a series of strange incidents all over town with multiple people disappearing. Eventually, the gang realizes that they managed to get a glimpse of whatever broke out of the train on film, thus leading them on a journey to try and find it before the Air Force ends up destroying it.

When people say that this is basically J.J. Abrams’ ‘Spielberg film’, it’s admittedly quite easy to see why and not just because Spielberg himself produced it. From a narrative standpoint, Super 8 thoroughly maintains a lot of the story beats that defined many of Spielberg’s most iconic films, especially when it comes to the overall concept of kids from a quiet town going through a truly otherworldly experience as seen in films like E.T. and The Goonies (even though Spielberg technically didn’t direct the latter). And while I know that some critics gave Abrams some major flak for how overt his homages to Spielberg’s work were, I think that he handles this aspect of the film excellently, thus giving Super 8 a pleasantly nostalgic vibe but one that’s done under a modern aesthetic. Really, the only ‘Spielberg trope’ that he didn’t need to utilize here was the decision to not overtly show this film’s alien creature for most of the run-time. Sure, it worked with the shark in Jaws but that was back in the ’70s and was a result of Spielberg overcoming the problems that stemmed from the mechanical sharks that were used during the production which, as you can probably guess, is something that usually isn’t an issue nowadays in an age where most visual effects are CGI-based. And yet, this doesn’t prevent the film from being a wholly engaging story that also excellently hits its biggest emotional beats. I’ve always felt that one of J.J. Abrams’ best traits as a director is his strong handling of a story’s most important emotional moments and Super 8 is another prime example of that as it explores how both the Lamb and Dainard families have struggled to cope with the accident that has forever tied them together.

It also goes without saying that one of the biggest ways in which this film pays tribute to the Spielberg aesthetic is how it largely relies on a cast that’s primarily made up of kids. Back when Super 8 first came out, almost all its young leads were genuine newcomers, and while several of them have gone on to be in other projects since then, Elle Fanning was basically the only one of them who had any sort of experience in the industry at that time. Despite this, however, they all do a fantastic job in their respective roles. Their camaraderie is top-notch and while the story does mainly focus on its two main protagonists, Joe and Alice, the other members of the group do get to have their standout moments, from Charles getting a lot of the best comedic lines (which helps to make up for his admittedly abrasive personality) and Cary’s overt obsession with fireworks that other characters find concerning. Ultimately, though, the biggest stars of the show are Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning. Fanning is arguably the biggest standout of the entire film, showcasing some impressive maturity for her age, and while Courtney’s performance is more subdued by comparison, it still very much feels right in line with other similarly aged Spielberg-esque protagonists such as Elliott from E.T. Finally, to close out the main cast, we have a solid trio of performances from the film’s adult leads; Kyle Chandler as Joe’s father Jack, who struggles to reconnect with his son, Ron Eldard as Alice’s drunk but emotionally traumatized father Louis, and Noah Emmerich, who’s appropriately sinister as Nelec, the Air Force colonel who’s revealed to have a history with the alien creature that has been unleashed on the town.  

I still fondly remember the anticipation that I had for this film’s release, which all started when its first trailer ran in front of Iron Man 2 all the way back in 2010. Since this was right around the time that J.J. Abrams’ first Star Trek film was quickly becoming one of my favorite films of all time, I was very much hyped to see his next film, especially since it was going to be produced by the one and only Steven Spielberg. And while I wouldn’t properly play it until many years after both it and the film’s release, it’s also cool to note how Super 8 was promoted by one of the most popular video games of the year, Portal 2, which featured an ‘interactive trailer’ for the film that put players on the Air Force train that carries the alien creature as it gets into its big crash. Basically, to make a long story short, Super 8 was a prime example of J.J. Abrams’ ‘mystery box’ approach to marketing his films so that he could avoid the leak of major spoilers. Granted, this trademark of his ended up attracting a mostly negative reaction from both critics and audiences due to its debatable effectiveness, especially in the wake of Star Trek Into Darkness’ big reveal surrounding its take on the character Khan Noonien Singh. That said, though, I do think that he deserves credit for what I view as a noble attempt at pulling all this off in an age where film-related spoilers and leaks are practically commonplace. Now, with all that in mind, I can freely admit that I don’t necessarily consider Super 8 to be J.J.’s best film, mostly due to a few plot elements here and there that could’ve benefitted from some additional development.  

Ultimately, though, it’s safe to say that the biggest talking point surrounding this film was its status as Abrams’ tribute to the filmography of Steven Spielberg, a move that attracted both its fans… and its critics. In other words, the discourse surrounding this film isn’t that far off from the ongoing debate that film fandom has had these past few years about nostalgia in general and how it’s heavily defined a lot of recent media. Case in point, as I alluded to back in the intro, this was not the first time (nor was it the last, for that matter) that a J.J. Abrams film attracted a bunch of attention over its nostalgic elements; just look at how a nagging nitpick about The Force Awakens ended up becoming the defining criticism of The Rise of Skywalker. And yet, as someone who considers himself to have a neutral stance on the whole nostalgia debate (in other words, someone who’s totally fine with it but not to the point where it’d cloud my judgment on anything), I believe that J.J. Abrams very much succeeded in making this his ‘Spielberg film’. In fact, I’d even bet that anyone who goes into this completely unaware of the fact that J.J. Abrams directed it wouldn’t have guessed that it wasn’t a Steven Spielberg directed film until the end credits. In short, while I may not have been alive during the era in which this film takes place, it wholly succeeds in bringing you back to a time where Steven Spielberg gave us some of the greatest films of all-time, effectively making Super 8 the second J.J. Abrams directed film after 2009’s Star Trek that will always have its place as one of my favorite films of all time.

Rating: 5/5!

Jaws: Series Retrospective

While the coronavirus pandemic has forced us all to stay within the confines of our homes rather than being out and about, we are very much in the summer season, and with that in mind, I decided that today was the perfect time for a retrospective of a franchise that’s practically defined by the summer aesthetic. But, of course, what’s it mainly known for is its first installment, which is not only widely considered to be one of the greatest films ever made but was also the film that single-handedly launched the career of its director and revolutionized the concept of ‘summer blockbusters’. Yes, folks, today we’re talking about the Jaws franchise, which began in 1975 with the adaptation of the 1974 novel of the same name by Peter Benchley about a great white shark that terrorizes the summer town of Amity Island. While the film ended up enduring a notoriously troubled production due largely to problems surrounding its special effects, it promptly became a full-blown phenomenon. In doing so, it firmly established its director, a fellow by the name of Steven Spielberg, as one of the top filmmakers in the industry; a pedigree that persists to this very day. Jaws went on to inspire countless imitators while also spawning three follow-ups of its own. However, Spielberg had nothing to do with any of the sequels, which gradually fared worse with critics and audiences with each subsequent release. And while I’m well-aware of the situation that I’m about to get myself into when it comes to this franchise’s low points, I’m still very eager to tackle the film that helped paved the way for all the great blockbusters that have come out in the years since. Plus, the first film is celebrating its 45^th anniversary this year, and like I said before, even if the idea of going to the beach right now is about as scary as dealing with a man-eating shark, I figured that there’s no better time to do this. With that in mind, beware what may come from the ocean and prepare for the possibility that you’re “gonna need a bigger boat” as we look at the four films that make up the Jaws franchise.  

JAWS (1975)

At this point, what more is there to be said about Jaws? It’s a film that’s easily one of the most notable success stories in the history of film despite its production being a full-blown nightmare. Sure, it may have been riding on all the hype surrounding its source material, but what was originally meant to be a seemingly easy two-month shoot that began in the summer of 1974 ended up lasting all the way to October. This was largely due to the bold decision by Steven Spielberg (who was just a relative newcomer at the time) to shoot the film’s third act at sea instead of in a large water tank as is usually the case with films of this nature. Because of this, the filming of those scenes was often waylaid by various delays including bad weather and, most infamously, the consistent malfunctions of the film’s ambitious mechanical shark props. And yet, this is what ultimately gave Spielberg the inspiration that he needed to rework the film into the masterpiece that it is today. Instead of regularly showing the shark as he originally intended (which was obviously impossible at that point given all the technical problems), he decided to limit the shark’s time on-screen to make it more of an ominous threat. In doing so, this helped turn a standard B-movie type premise into something reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock, which you can certainly see in the final film. Thanks in large part to the underwater sequences that are from the shark’s perspective, Jaws does a wonderful job of establishing its threatening presence without ever showing it. But, of course, this then results in one of the most iconic sequences in all of film when the shark emerges from the water while Chief Brody is throwing chum into the ocean, thus paving the way for the classic line, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat!”. So, at the very least, when the shark does appear on-screen, Spielberg and his team were able to use it as effectively as they could despite all the issues that it caused for them during the shoot.

But, of course, the other key thing that makes Jaws such a masterpiece is how it’s very much a character-driven story, and it’s all thanks to the outstanding lead trio of Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw. As Chief Martin Brody, Scheider brings much of the film’s emotional heft as the reluctant hero looking to protect the people of Amity Island. As oceanographer Matt Hooper, Richard Dreyfuss provides a lot of the film’s best humorous moments while still crafting an excellent rapport with his co-stars. And as the grizzled shark hunter Quint, Robert Shaw brings nothing but pure gravitas to the role, especially in the scene where Quint reveals the harrowing story of how he was one of the few survivors of the ill-fated USS Indianapolis. These three are also backed by excellent supporting players like Lorraine Gary as Brody’s supportive wife Ellen and Murray Hamilton as the conniving Mayor of Amity Island, Larry Vaughn, who prevents Brody from closing the beaches due to how it’d affect the town financially (which, yes, is a situation that’s quite ironic nowadays…). But perhaps the most interesting thing to note here is that the biggest deviation that the film makes from the book is that the main characters are far more likable than they were in the novel, resulting in one of the rare cases where a book-to-film adaptation does manage to improve upon its source material. And sure enough, it’s one of the many reasons why Jaws is the undisputed cinematic classic that it is. While I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that my most recent viewing of the film was the first time that I’d ever seen it in full (Oh, don’t look at me like that. We all have those films that we haven’t gotten around to seeing yet…), it’s easy to understand why its legendary reputation has endured to this day. Thanks to the phenomenal direction from Steven Spielberg and an outstanding cast, Jaws managed to overcome one of the most notorious productions in film history (one that, let’s face it, would’ve been mercilessly scrutinized in today’s internet age) to become a landmark outing that forever changed the art of filmmaking as we know it.

Rating: 5/5!

JAWS 2 (1978)

Bolstered by the immense success of Jaws, Universal immediately set their sights on a follow-up. The only problem, though, was that Steven Spielberg wanted nothing to do with it, citing all the problems that he faced while making the first film while also going on record stating that he thought that a sequel was a terrible idea. So instead, the studio tapped director John D. Hancock, who was fresh off the 1973 sports drama Bang the Drum Slowly, to direct Jaws 2. However, just one month into the production, Hancock ended up getting fired from his position due to a combination of the studio’s disapproval of the darker tone that he was going with and his general inexperience when it came to directing action. It even got to the point where Spielberg was finally open to the idea of returning to direct, although that outcome never came to pass due to his commitments to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Thus, a new director was finally found in Jeannot Szwarc, who would go on to direct a few notable cult classics such as 1980’s Somewhere in Time and 1985’s Santa Claus: The Movie. Unfortunately, that didn’t put an end to the production’s various problems. Aside from the continued issues that stemmed from shooting on the open water (albeit in the Gulf of Mexico this time around rather than Martha’s Vineyard, which was thankfully still used as the setting for the town of Amity Island), much of the production was dominated by the tense relationship between Szwarc and Roy Scheider. Just like Spielberg, Scheider wasn’t keen on a sequel and the only reason why he ended up doing it was to opt out of a contract that he had with the studio after he had backed out of the lead role in The Deer Hunter due to creative differences. Throughout the production, Scheider consistently clashed with Szwarc, primarily due to the latter’s tendency to focus his attention more towards technical matters rather than his actors. In fact, it even got physical between the two at one point when the producers attempted to deal with their feud. And yet, despite all this and the obvious burden of having to follow an all-time classic, Jaws 2 still manages to be a decent enough sequel.

At the end of the day, the worst thing that I can say about this film is that it’s the very definition of a ‘by-the-numbers’ follow-up. It does its job of continuing the story as primarily seen through the eyes of Chief Brody, who once again finds himself dealing with a ferocious shark that threatens the people of Amity Island despite facing opposition from those who don’t believe him. It also fulfills the sequel requirement of boasting larger set-pieces that result in more screen time for the shark while simultaneously raising its narrative stakes, namely by having Brody’s sons Michael and Sean trapped at sea when the shark attacks the group that they’re hanging out with. Despite this, however, much of the film ends up feeling rather flat, especially when it comes to the story. Part of this is due to the considerable amount of time spent with Mike Brody’s friends in the second half of the film, who are largely one-note and almost completely indistinguishable from each other. But at the very least, the film isn’t a chore to sit through and has some solid shark sequences even if some of them could’ve benefitted from some better editing. And despite the whole thing about him not really wanting to be there, Roy Scheider is still great in the role of Chief Brody and is once again backed by Lorraine Gary as Ellen and Murray Hamilton as Mayor Vaughn (no Richard Dreyfuss, though, due to the lack of involvement from Spielberg). This is what largely makes Jaws 2 a generally okay albeit mostly forgettable sequel. It isn’t really anything special and is obviously not as good as its predecessor, but to its credit, it’s still competently made. I mean, let’s be honest, folks… it goes without saying that this is the best that we’re going to get out of the Jaws sequels. From this point onward, it’s all downhill from here…

Rating: 3/5

JAWS 3-D (1983)

Following in the footsteps of other horror threequels such as Friday the 13^th: Part III and Amityville III, it was decided to have the third Jaws film be shot in 3-D. This was during a time where the 3-D format was experiencing a major resurgence about three decades after its previous peak in the 50’s and another three decades before it became popular once again in the early 2010’s. However, like those other 80’s horror films, most of Jaws 3-D’s initial home releases didn’t offer the option to view it in its intended format, and while the 3-D version is more common nowadays thanks to its most recent Blu-Ray release, I wouldn’t be surprised if most people have only seen the 2-D version (myself included). Because of this, we’re left with a film that’s full of blatant attempts to have things jump out at the camera for the 3-D effect. But while this does technically mean that there was more effort in making this a 3-D film compared to films that just get post-converted into 3-D, shots like this end up looking incredibly awkward when viewed solely in 2-D. It also doesn’t help that the film’s weak effects aren’t just limited to the 3-D as it also suffers from some laughably bad green-screen effects and an all-around blurry film quality that was, apparently, a result of it being turned into a 2-D release. And as for the film itself, it’s just another generic shark attack flick with a dull story and one-note characters, even if it does notably switch up the setting from Amity Island to SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. Thus, while it does have the distinction of being directed by the original film’s production designer, Joe Alves, that doesn’t keep Jaws 3-D from being the mediocre B-film that the original Jaws managed to avoid being thanks to the efforts of Steven Spielberg and company. If anything, I’ll give it credit for the amusingly hokey vibe that it always gives off, but it probably would’ve been a more interesting and all-around better film had it gone with its original plan of being a comedic spoof titled Jaws 3, People 0 and co-written by John Hughes (yes, that nearly happened…).  

Rating: 2/5

JAWS: THE REVENGE (1987)

And finally, we come to Jaws: The Revenge, which opted to ignore the events of Jaws 3-D in favor of returning to the idea of focusing solely on the Brody family whereas Jaws 3-D wasn’t even originally meant to feature Michael and Sean Brody. This time, however, it’s primarily centered on Ellen Brody (with Chief Martin Brody established as having died in-between films) as she and Michael find themselves dealing with another shark when it appears in the Bahamas while Ellen is visiting Michael’s family. And if that wasn’t enough, they have quite a bit of history with this shark since it was the one that killed Sean, hence the film’s infamous tagline, “This time it’s personal”. But, of course, as I’m sure many of you already know, Jaws: The Revenge was nothing short of a disaster upon its release and is widely considered to be one of the worst films of all time… and yeah, it’s easy to see why. Specifically, this film suffers from an utterly incomprehensible story that’s chock-full of bizarre logic gaps and undercooked ideas, namely through the implication that Ellen has a psychological connection to this shark and that it purposefully followed her and her family to the Bahamas. Pair that with the worst shark sequences in the history of the franchise and mediocre direction that reflects poorly on everyone in the cast (including the returning Lorraine Gary and newcomer Michael Caine) and you have a film that, for much of its runtime, doesn’t really feel like a Jaws film at all. In short, Jaws: The Revenge still stands as the prime example of when a film franchise truly hits rock bottom and can best be summed up by a quote from Marty McFly in the Spielberg-produced Back to the Future Part II when he comes across a virtual shark hologram promoting the fictional Jaws 19 in 2015.

Rating: 1/5

And that concludes this retrospective on the Jaws franchise. Sure, it didn’t exactly end on a great note thanks to the one-two punch of Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge, but in the oft chance I haven’t said it already on this site, one of the most entertaining aspects of doing retrospectives like this is getting to see how franchises play out for better or worse. And at the end of the day, the original Jaws will continue to serve as one of the most quintessential films of all time regardless of the steadily declining quality of its sequels.

Jurassic Park: The Story So Far

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the next installment of an ongoing series here on Rhode Island Movie Corner, ‘The Story So Far’. This is where I recap the past installments of a franchise in time for its latest release. In doing so, it allows you, the readers, an opportunity to catch up on a franchise if you find that you don’t have enough time to watch its previous installments and just want to know about its most important details before seeing the new film. And for today’s segment of ‘The Story So Far’, we’re looking at one of the most famous franchises in recent film history, Jurassic Park. Ever since director Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of author Michael Crichton’s best-selling novel of the same name hit theaters in 1993, it has gone on to become of the most beloved blockbusters of all-time, heralded for its groundbreaking visual effects. It then proceeded to get two follow-ups, 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which Spielberg directed as well, and 2001’s Jurassic Park III, directed by Joe Johnston. Both films did well at the box-office though they weren’t as well-received by critics and audiences when compared to the first film. After that, a planned fourth film spent several years languishing in development hell until director Colin Trevorrow returned audiences to the island of Isla Nublar in 2015 with Jurassic World. Upon its release, the film set numerous box-office records amidst a critical reception that admittedly made it just as polarizing as the previous two films. But, of course, we’re back again with this cautionary tale of ‘man vs. nature’ with this year’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, directed by J.A. Bayona. But until then, let’s return to the early days of this crazy, little dinosaur experiment and embark on an adventure ’65 million years in the making’ as we recap the events of the Jurassic Park series.

Jurassic Park (RELEASED: 1993)

On the island of Isla Nublar, located off the coast of Costa Rica, industrialist John Hammond (Sir Richard Attenborough) and his company InGen have developed a way of cloning dinosaurs utilizing dinosaur DNA that has been extracted from fossilized mosquitoes. Hammond plans on showcasing his new discovery to the world via an immersive theme park called ‘Jurassic Park’. However, while transporting a Velociraptor to a new enclosure one night, one of the company’s dinosaur handlers is killed when the raptor tries to break free, resulting in a lawsuit from the employee’s family. Because of this, Hammond’s investors demand that he hires a team of experts to visit the park to ensure that it’s maintaining good safety standards. Thus, Hammond invites paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and mathematician/chaos theorist Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to the island. Along the way, they’re joined by lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferraro), who represents Hammond’s investors, and once they arrive on the island, they meet Hammond’s grandchildren, tech-savvy Lex Murphy (Ariana Richards) and her younger brother, dinosaur enthusiast Tim (Joseph Mazzello). This proves to be a bit of an issue for Grant who, as evident from an earlier scene where he discusses raptors with a kid at a dig site, isn’t that big a fan of children. But the tour goes on as planned, with the group being told that the dinosaurs on the island are unable to breed because they are all female, something that Malcolm questions as he claims that this attempt of theirs to control nature is doomed to fail. As for the tour itself, it ultimately ends up being incredibly underwhelming as most of the dinosaurs that the group is meant to come across don’t show up. The only dinosaur that they do come across is a sick Triceratops that they find once they temporarily leave their tour vehicles. Ellie decides to stay and study the Triceratops while Grant, Malcolm, Tim, Lex, and Gennaro return to the tour vehicles right as a tropical storm begins to make landfall on the island, which forces the tour to be put on hold.  

Meanwhile, Jurassic Park’s disgruntled main computer programmer, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight), initiates a plan to steal some of InGen’s fertilized embryos for a rival company. To do so, Nedry temporarily shuts down the park’s security system, which also ends up shutting off all the power in the park. To make matters worse for Grant and company, this ends up occurring right when they’re stationed near the Tyrannosaurus Rex paddock. Sure enough, the T-Rex breaks loose, eating Gennaro (while he’s hiding on the toilet in a nearby restroom) and injuring Malcolm while Grant and the kids barely manage to escape. Nedry’s own efforts to leave the island with the embryos in tow ends up being disastrous as well when he gets lost on the way to the docks and is killed by a venom-spitting Dilophosaurus (disclaimer: Dilophosaurus did not spit venom in real-life; this was something that Michael Crichton invented for the novel). When Ellie and the park’s warden, Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck), head out to try and find Grant and the kids, they rescue Malcolm and barely manage to escape from the T-Rex when it chases after them. Once back at the park’s visitor center, Hammond and his chief engineer, Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson), decide to reboot the park’s entire system when they find that they’re unable to figure out a way around Nedry’s hacks. When Arnold fails to return from turning the power back on, Ellie and Muldoon head out to investigate. Muldoon ends up getting killed by a pair of Velociraptors while Ellie manages to reach the primary maintenance shed and gets the power back up and running again, coming across Arnold’s severed arm in the process.

As Grant and the kids begin their journey back to the visitor center, they come across a bunch of broken egg shells, with Grant realizing that Malcolm was right and that the dinosaurs can breed after all due to the parts of their DNA that were taken from frogs who can change their sex in a single-sex environment. After enduring everything from a Gallimimus stampede (and subsequent T-Rex attack) to Tim nearly dying when they try to climb over an electric fence right when the power is turned back on, the trio manages to return to the visitor center and reunite with Ellie. Unfortunately, they are then pursued by the raptors, who first chase Tim and Lex through the kitchen before cornering the lot of them in the control room. The group manages to temporarily keep them at bay when Lex manages to use the park’s UNIX computer system to restore power to the entire park, fixing both the phones and the electric door locks. As Hammond calls for a helicopter to evacuate, the group are forced to flee once again when the raptors break through the windows of the control room. They eventually end up in the visitor center’s foyer, where they get cornered by the raptors. Luckily for them, the T-Rex pops up by surprise and kills the raptors, giving them ample time to escape. After reuniting with Hammond and Malcolm, the group finally escapes the island via helicopter, with Grant having gained a newfound appreciation for children thanks to the time that he has spent with Tim and Lex.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park (RELEASED: 1997)

After the success of the film adaptation of Jurassic Park, Crichton published a sequel, The Lost World, in 1995, which was subsequently adapted to the big-screen by Spielberg two years later. Set four years after the events of the original film, it opens with InGen once again finding itself in hot water when a young girl named Cathy Bowman (Camilla Belle) is attacked by a swarm of Compsognathus while on vacation with her family. As it turns out, the family had landed on another Costa Rican island, Isla Sorna, which is revealed to be the site where the company had created the dinosaurs before they were moved over to Isla Nublar. The site was ultimately abandoned when a hurricane ravaged the area, leaving the dinosaurs on their own without any sort of measures in place to restrain them. InGen, now headed by John Hammond’s nephew Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), plans on using the island to fix their financial troubles caused by the incident on Isla Nublar. While this is going on, John Hammond approaches Ian Malcolm and asks for his help in ensuring the dinosaurs’ survival by having him travel to Isla Sorna with a team to document them to prove that they’re perfectly fine in their natural habitat. While Malcolm is hesitant to return to the area, he is ultimately convinced to go when he learns that one of the members of Hammond’s team is his girlfriend, paleontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne Moore), who’s already on the island. Now intent on getting her out before something happens to her, Malcolm meets up with the other two members of their team, engineer/field equipment expert Eddie Carr (Richard Schiff) and video documentarian Nick Van Owen (Vince Vaughn). Before they head off, Malcolm is also forced to deal with the increasingly strained relationship that he has with his daughter Kelly (Vanessa Lee Chester).

Once the group lands on Isla Sorna, they reunite with Sarah while also discovering that Kelly had stowed away with them in their mobile base. Soon after, a team of mercenaries and hunters led by Ludlow and big-game hunter Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite) arrive on the island to enact InGen’s plans by capturing multiple dinosaurs and having them sent to a theme park that’s planned to be built in San Diego. They also capture an infant T-Rex that Tembo plans on using as bait to lure its parent, which he’s primarily looking to capture. Clearly aware of why this is, as Malcolm later puts it, ‘the worst idea in the history of bad ideas’, Nick and Sarah break the dinosaurs out of their cages, allowing them to wreak havoc upon the InGen team’s camp. They also take the infant T-Rex back to the mobile base to fix its broken leg. This, of course, causes its parents to arrive on the scene, knocking the base off a cliff while Malcolm, Sarah, and Nick are still inside and eating Eddie when he tries to pull it back up. The trio ultimately gets rescued by the InGen team and, because of the loss of both teams’ communications equipment, are forced to form an uneasy ‘alliance’ with them to reach the island’s abandoned radio station and call for rescue. The group ends up getting chased by the adult T-Rexes and a bunch of velociraptors, with numerous casualties along the way. Malcolm’s group manages to reach the radio station, fend off the raptors, and call for a helicopter while the InGen team successfully manages to capture the male T-Rex, who’s then transported to the site of the new theme park in San Diego.

Back on the mainland, the ship transporting the T-Rex ends up crashing into InGen’s docks when it arrives earlier than expected without responding to any calls from the harbormaster. After it’s discovered that the ship’s crew has been killed, the T-Rex is accidentally released from the cargo hold, allowing it to rampage through the city where it menaces suburbia, eats ‘unlucky bastards’ who happen to be played by the film’s screenwriters (no joke, that’s what the character played via cameo by screenwriter David Koepp is listed as), etc. To get it back on the ship, Malcolm and Sarah collect the infant T-Rex from the new park’s facilities and transport it back by car, luring the adult T-Rex back with them just like when they first took the infant back to their mobile base on the island. When Ludlow tries to intervene, he gets trapped in the cargo hold by the adult T-Rex and is devoured by the infant while Malcolm and Sarah manage to tranquilize the former and trap them both in there so that they can be sent back to Isla Sorna. The next day, Malcolm, Sarah, and Kelly watch a news report on the infant and adult T-Rexes being transported back. An interview with John Hammond reveals that plans have been made with the Costa Rican Department of Biological Preserves to turn Isla Sorna into a nature preserve, allowing the dinosaurs to live in peace without any sort of interference from humans. Thus, as the film ends with a shot of the family of T-Rexes reunited on the island, Hammond quotes the line that Malcolm famously stated in the previous film, affirming that ‘life will find a way’.

Jurassic Park III (RELEASED: 2001)

Four years after the events of the previous film, Jurassic Park III opens with 12-year-old Eric Kirby (Trevor Morgan) parasailing near the island of Isla Sorna with family friend Ben Hildebrand (Mark Harelik). To their horror, the other passengers on their boat are killed by something that is unseen due to fog and the two end up having to detach themselves from the boat before it crashes into a bunch of rocks, resulting in them being directed right towards Isla Sorna. Meanwhile, back on the mainland, Dr. Alan Grant finds himself struggling to find funding for his team’s research while Ellie Sattler has since gotten married to U.S. State Department worker Mark (Taylor Nichols), whom she has had two kids with. One day, Grant is approached by Paul (William H. Macy) and Amanda (Tea Leoni) Kirby, who offer him funding for his research in exchange for an aerial tour of Isla Sorna. Despite his initial dismissal about returning to the area (to the point where he responds to a question about it at a university lecture by stating that ‘no force on earth or heaven will get him on that island’), Grant agrees to their offer. He is joined by his assistant, Billy Brennan (Alessandro Nivola), on the trip along with a bunch of mercenaries who are ‘financed’ by the Kirbys, Udesky (Michael Jeter), Cooper (John Diehl), and Nash (Bruce A. Young). Once they arrive at Isla Sorna, however, Grant discovers that the group plans on landing there. Despite his objections, they do land and, soon enough, they end up stranded when they crash into a Spinosaurus that had been chasing Cooper, who is subsequently eaten by it along with Nash. After escaping both the Spinosaurus and a T-Rex, who gets killed by the former, Grant learns that the Kirbys had lied to him. Instead of being a rich couple, they are recently-divorced parents who own a hardware store and have come to Isla Sorna in search of their son Eric and Amanda’s boyfriend Ben, who have been missing for the past eight weeks.

The group finds Ben and Eric’s parasail, with Ben’s skeletal remains still attached to it and no sign of Eric, meaning that he’s potentially still alive. After being chased by a group of Velociraptors, who kill Udesky, Grant is separated from the group and is rescued from the raptors by Eric, who’s managed to survive on his own for the past eight weeks. When the duo manages to reunite with the others, Grant learns that the reason why the raptors have been chasing them is because Billy had taken a pair of raptor eggs to provide their dig site the funding that they obviously won’t be getting from the Kirbys. Grant, furious at this decision, takes the eggs to ensure that the group will survive, remarking that Billy ‘is no better than the people who built this place’. When the group enters an aviary full of Pteranodons, Billy saves Eric from being taken by them but is seemingly killed in the process. Eventually, the group begins to make their way downriver by boat, barely managing to ward off the Spinosaurus with fire while Grant phones Ellie for help. When the group gets cornered by the Velociraptors once again, Grant manages to ward them off by surrendering the stolen eggs to them and using Billy’s 3-D printed replica of a Velociraptor larynx to confuse them. Once they reach the coast, they end up getting rescued by the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy, who were called there by Ellie. Billy is revealed to be alive and the group leaves the island while noticing a bunch of Pteranodons departing as well. As Grant remarks, they’re ‘looking for new nesting grounds’.

Jurassic World (RELEASED: 2015)

Generally ignoring the events of the previous two films (which still recognizing them as canon), Jurassic World takes place 22 years after the events of the original film. In the years since, John Hammond’s idea of a dinosaur theme park has been revitalized by the Masrani Corporation, with ‘Jurassic World’ operating on the exact same site on Isla Nublar. Bickering brothers Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins) Mitchell travel to the park to visit their aunt Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), who serves as the park’s operations manager. As soon as they arrive, though, she immediately brushes them off to deal with the pressure coming from her boss, ‘pilot’ Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan), to develop a new attraction that would help boost their attendance numbers. Under the direction of Hammond’s former lead scientist Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), a new dinosaur known as the Indominus Rex is created from the combined DNA samples of various dinosaurs, including the T-Rex, and other creatures. Claire is then forced to ask for the assistance of the park’s velociraptor trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt), whom she had one ‘bad’ date with, to ensure that the Indominus’ enclosure is properly secured. Once there, however, they find that the Indominus has seemingly managed to escape. As it turns out, the Indominus managed to fool them with its camouflaging ability (taken from cuttlefish DNA) and escapes for real once Owen and a few other workers go in to inspect the site. Masrani attempts to subdue it by sending in the park’s Asset Containment Unit, but most of the team ends up getting killed by it, resulting in Claire ordering a complete evacuation of the northern half of the island.

Unfortunately for Claire, a new problem emerges when Zach and Gray end up wandering into a restricted area via the park’s gryosphere attraction. The two brothers end up getting attacked by the Indominus and barely manage to escape from it by jumping off a waterfall. While Claire and Owen head out to try and rescue them, they end up coming across the old Jurassic Park Visitor Center and begin heading back to the resort in one of the old park’s jeeps, which they manage to repair. Meanwhile, Masrani pilots an attack helicopter to hunt the Indominus. This ends up being a complete disaster, however, as the helicopter crashes into the resort’s aviary, resulting in a swarm of Pterosaurs attacking the resort’s guests. Owen and Claire manage to find Zach and Gray while park security manages to subdue the attacking Pterosaurs. Soon after, Vic Hoskins (Vincent D’Onofrio), head of InGen’s security team, assumes command of the situation. Hoskins and Owen had come into conflict earlier over the former’s suggestion of using the latter’s quartet of trained raptors (Charlie, Echo, Delta, and Blue) for military use. Despite Owen’s objections, he agrees to partake in Hoskins’ plan to use the raptors to hunt down the Indominus. Unfortunately, once Owen and the raptors come across the Indominus, Owen realizes one of the biggest secrets surrounding the creature’s creation… it’s part raptor. This allows the Indominus to become the Raptors’ new ‘alpha’, resulting in the pack beginning to hunt InGen’s troops.

Owen, Claire, Zach, and Gray barely manage to escape and return to the Jurassic World Visitor Center. Once there, they discover that Hoskins has been working in conjunction with Dr. Wu on new hybrid dinosaurs to further his plan of having them be used for military purposes. While Hoskins ends up getting killed by Delta, Owen manages to regain the trust of his raptor pack right as the Indominus returns. After Echo and Delta are killed by it (Charlie was killed earlier during the Indominus hunt by a missile), Gray remarks that they need something with ‘more teeth’ to stop it. Thus, Claire orders one of the park’s control room operators, Lowery Cruthers (Jake Johnson), to open the gates to the T-Rex paddock as she manages to lure the T-Rex into a fight with the Indominus… and yes, she does all of this while wearing heels. With assistance from Blue, the last surviving member of Owen’s raptor pack, the T-Rex manages to corner the Indominus at the edge of the resort’s lagoon. Before the Indominus can attack again, it is swiftly grabbed by a Mosasaurus and dragged underwater. Blue and the T-Rex depart, though the former shares one last moment with Owen beforehand. As Isla Nublar ends up being abandoned once more, Zach and Gray reunite with their parents, Karen (Judy Greer) and Scott (Andy Buckley), at an off-site shelter in Costa Rica while Owen and Claire prepare for whatever comes next by deciding to stick together ‘for survival’. The film ends with the T-Rex perched above the abandoned Jurassic World site, once again in control of its home environment. But as it’s established in the trailers for the upcoming Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the future of said home is put into jeopardy by way of the island’s previously dormant volcano.

And that is the ‘Story So Far’ when it comes to the Jurassic Park series. Thanks for following along and you can expect a review of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom sometime in the next few days. While I am aware that the overall reception towards this franchise’s sequels tend to vary amongst critics and audiences, I’ve personally enjoyed all the films in this franchise (yes, even Jurassic Park III despite the 2.5/5 rating that I gave it a few years back in the retrospective that I did on the original trilogy prior to the release of Jurassic World). Thus, I am eagerly looking forward to this new film, which I hear will provide an interesting set-up for the new trilogy’s finale that’s set to come out in 2021 and will see Colin Trevorrow return as director.

Ready Player One (2018) review

There’s no denying the fact that Steven Spielberg is one of the most legendary filmmakers in the history of cinema. Since his career first took off in the early 70’s, he’s given us an endless array of cinematic classics. He’s directed everything from iconic blockbusters like Jaws, E.T., and the Indiana Jones series to critically-acclaimed dramas like Schindler’s List, The Color Purple, and Saving Private Ryan. With that in mind, one could say that it’s only fitting that he’d be the one to direct a film that honors the current era of geekdom that he had a major hand in creating. And thus, here we are now with his latest directorial effort, Ready Player One, a film adaptation of author Ernest Cline’s best-selling novel of the same name from 2011. Upon its release in August of that year, this story of a teenager who embarks on an epic journey within the expansive world of a virtual reality game received solid reviews from critics and ended up becoming a New York Times bestseller. But in the years since, however, the novel has started to attract a steadily growing backlash from those who weren’t too keen on its over-reliance on pop cultural references. Nevertheless, seven years after its release, Cline’s novel now comes to the big screen under the direction of the one man who was undeniably one of Cline’s biggest influences. And because that man is Steven Spielberg, he manages to avoid making this film nothing but an endless barrage of Easter eggs (in this case, pun intended…) and instead gives us an entertaining sci-fi fantasy adventure that fully immerses us within its fantastical world.

In the year 2045, most of humanity finds itself living in slum-like communities due to everything from overpopulation to polluting. This includes teenager Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), who lives in ‘The Stacks’ (named for its collection of trailer homes stacked on top of each other) in Columbus, Ohio. Like everyone else, Wade escapes the gloom of reality by immersing himself within the virtual world of a computer simulation known as ‘the OASIS’. Within the OASIS, one can do anything, go anywhere, and be whoever they want to be from the world of pop culture. However, things get a little more interesting when OASIS users learn of a quest set up by the service’s creator, the late James Halliday (Mark Rylance). Whoever manages to complete this quest, made up of three challenges tied directly to Halliday’s favorite aspects of pop culture, and find the secret ‘Easter egg’ that Halliday has hidden within the OASIS will earn Halliday’s shares of his company along with complete control of the OASIS. Wade, who adopts the username of ‘Parzival’, soon finds himself performing well in Halliday’s challenges thanks to his extensive knowledge of Halliday’s life. However, this also begins to put him in direct competition with Innovative Online Industries (IOI), led by CEO Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), who is also seeking the Egg to take over the OASIS by any means necessary. Thus, with the future of the OASIS on the line, Wade teams up with several other Gunters (‘Egg Hunters’), including Samantha Cook AKA Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and his best friend Helen AKA Aech (Lena Waithe), to complete the challenges so that they can collect the Egg first.

Well, there’s really no way of beating around the bush on this one; one of the most definitive aspects of Ready Player One is its wide array of cameos and bits of dialogue that reference almost everything from the world of pop culture. There is so much of that in this film that it’ll legitimately require multiple viewings just to spot them all. At the same time, though, doing so would allow you to marvel at this film’s impressive visual effects. Obviously, everything within the OASIS is CGI, but thanks to the excellent work by the legendary Industrial Light and Magic, this film boasts some of the crispest CGI in recent memory. But fear not, as this film is much more than just a bunch of pretty visuals. Now, of course, this film does emphasize all the various cultural references that it has to offer; everything from Wade/Parzival riding a Back to the Future DeLorean in the OASIS to him using the ‘Holy Hand Grenade’ from Monty Python and the Holy Grail in combat. Despite this, though, Spielberg’s great direction makes it so that it ends up being more about the story and its characters than whatever figure from a popular video game or film happen to pop up on screen from time to time. After all, Spielberg, well-aware of how big of an impact he made on pop culture in the 80’s, purposefully decided to not directly use anything from the films that he directed so that this wouldn’t become an extreme case of vanity. And while the film does celebrate pop culture, it also offers some commentary on the instances where that love can go a bit too far. While Halliday’s challenges are primarily influenced by his favorite bits of media, Wade and company soon realize that another key influence behind them all are some of Halliday’s biggest regrets in life that occurred due to his overall lifestyle. This, along with several other aspects of the plot, helps to give the narrative a solid amount of heart which, given some of his previous films, is something that Spielberg is quite good at doing.

This entertaining adventure is further backed by its excellent ensemble cast. In the lead role of Wade/Parzival, Tye Sheridan exhibits solid charisma while also having some excellent chemistry with Olivia Cooke as Samantha/Art3mis. And while Wade is the main character of the story, Samantha is just as well-versed as he is when it comes to the OASIS and Halliday’s tendencies while also being the one who keeps him out of trouble with IOI, making her much more than just a typical ‘love interest’. Speaking of IOI, CEO Nolan Sorrento proves to be a solid villain thanks in large part due to Ben Mendelsohn being given plenty of time to interact with Wade and company; in other words, he isn’t as underused from a narrative perspective as he [sort of] was in Rogue One. Finally, closing out the film’s core group of leads is Lena Waithe in what will surely be a breakout role for her as Helen/Aech, who has a strong camaraderie with Sheridan while also playing a major part in some of the best moments in the film (i.e. a sequence that involves their group going through a recreation of a classic film that she hasn’t seen). And while these four characters do end up getting the most attention plot-wise, meaning that some of the supporting characters end up being a little underutilized as a result, there are still plenty of memorable supporting roles in this film aside from them. Mark Rylance (who, given his roles in both Bridge of Spies and The BFG, is quickly becoming a new Spielberg regular) makes the most out of his brief role as Halliday and his OASIS avatar Anorak as does Simon Pegg as Halliday’s former business partner, Ogden Morrow. And while the two of them end up being the least focused on of the main group, who are known as the ‘High Five’ due to their shared success at beating Halliday’s challenges, brothers Akihide/Sho (Philip Zhao) and Toshiro/Daito (Win Morisaki) do get to partake in some of the film’s most standout moments.

Now for the record, I am very much well-aware of some of the main reasons why Ernest Cline’s original novel has been getting a considerably substantial amount of backlash in the years since its release. The main reason why is simple, as some have taken issue with Ready Player One’s heavy emphasis on nostalgia and the various facets of pop culture that society has been treated to over the years, especially things that came from the 80’s. But because I’ll admit to not having read the novel beforehand, I didn’t really care about that going in. I mean, sure, in basic terms, this film is an amalgamation of numerous bits of pop culture; everything from The Iron Giant and Akira to Overwatch and Minecraft. But if there’s one person who could make all that work without going overboard on all the pop cultural references, it’d be the man who served as a direct influence on the original story itself, Steven Spielberg. Under the confident direction of one of the industry’s quintessential filmmakers, the film adaptation of Ready Player One is a delightful cinematic adventure that boasts some of the most stunning visuals in recent memory along with a fantastic ensemble cast headlined by the terrific lead duo of Tye Sheridan and Olivia Cooke along with memorable supporting turns from the likes of Lena Waithe and Ben Mendelsohn. In other words, under the eye of a ‘lesser director’, this probably could’ve turned out exactly like its critics thought it would be based on their overall thoughts on the book. But if there’s one thing that I hope we all can agree on, it is that Steven Spielberg is not ‘a lesser director’.

Rating: 5/5!

The BFG (2016) review

Disney’s newest live-action flick, The BFG, certainly has a lot of prestige behind it in regards to its behind-the-scenes talent. Of course it all starts with its director, Steven Spielberg, the man who needs no introduction as he is quite arguably the most famous director in the entire film industry, having helmed numerous classics in his nearly six decades long career from the Indiana Jones films to Saving Private Ryan. This film, which also serves as his first directorial effort under the Disney banner, even sees him reteaming with one of his former collaborators, the late Melissa Mathison, who wrote Spielberg’s 1982 family classic, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, which this new film definitely shares a few similarities with. But the other big ‘star’ of the picture is the author of its source material; Roald Dahl. Dahl of course was one of the most famous children’s authors of all time, having penned numerous classics such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Matilda. This new film in particular is based off of his 1982 book of the same name, which centers on a young girl named Sophie and her adventures with a benevolent big-eared giant who is named the ‘Big Friendly Giant’, or ‘BFG’ for short, hence the title of the story. Previously there was a British animated TV adaptation of the story in 1989 but this is the first time that a live-action version has been made. And with the combined forces of Spielberg’s filmmaking mastery and Dahl’s imaginative writing at hand, The BFG is a very charming and imaginative family flick that very much wears its heart on its sleeve.

 

The film opens with a young girl named Sophie (Ruby Barnhill) living in a London orphanage. One night, while she is still awake even at 3:00 in the morning, she looks out of her bedroom window and sees a giant across the way. Said giant ends up coming to the window and snatches her up from right out of her bed. He then proceeds to take her to his home in the magical realm of Giant Country. But while Sophie initially fears that he’ll eat her, the giant, who refers to himself as the ‘Big Friendly Giant’ (Mark Rylance), proves to be just as friendly as his name suggests and is shown to only eat a disgusting vegetable known as a snozzcumber. During her time spent with the ‘BFG’ (the nickname that she ends up giving to him), Sophie learns that he is a dream-catcher. He catches dreams from another magical part of Giant Country and then proceeds to give them to sleeping children all over the world. Unfortunately for Sophie, while the 24-foot tall BFG proves to be a nice giant, there are also bad giants in Giant Country as well. Namely, a group of giants that are twice the size of the BFG, led by ‘the Fleshlumpeater’ (Jemaine Clement), that do eat ‘human beans’ and constantly bully the BFG around, as he is ‘a runt’ compared to them. This leads to Sophie and the BFG looking to find a way to stop the villainous giants before they can eat any more ‘human beans’, which soon results in them getting some royal help from the Queen of England herself (Penelope Wilton).

This is one really nice-looking film as far as the visuals are concerned. Obviously a lot of it was done with CGI, namely in scenes set in Giant Country in which Sophie is the only major ‘human’ character while all of the giants are created via motion-capture. And yet even with that said, the film does do a nice job of blending its ‘real’ and ‘digital’ elements together. Of course, being a Spielberg film, it’s certainly very well-made from a technical perspective. It’s well-shot by his go-to cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, well-edited by his go-to editor Michael Kahn, features the usual solid score by John Williams, etc. But what about Spielberg’s method of adapting Dahl’s original story? I bring that up because prior to his death in 1990, Dahl was never a big fan of most of the film adaptations of his books due to the deviations that they made to his stories, most notably/infamously the 1971 adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, dubbed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I’ll admit that I haven’t read The BFG so I can’t really comment on how faithful of an adaptation this is. Though from what I hear, Spielberg did tone down some of the darker elements of the story (e.g. the villainous giants aren’t as frightening as they are in the novel), something that Dahl has always been known for as a writer. But even with that said, Spielberg does still manage to give the film quite a lot of heart and charm while also very much translating the zany imagery of Dahl’s story to the big screen, resulting in plenty of creative visuals throughout. Really the only thing that holds this film back is that the plot is a bit aimless though to be fair I guess that was the case with the book as well.

The BFG sees Spielberg reteaming with Mark Rylance, who starred in Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies last year and won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor (and deservedly so I might add for those still bummed that he beat out Sylvester Stallone) for his work as Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. This time around Rylance stars in the title role of the BFG and once again he is fantastic. While the role does require him to do a lot of motion-capture work, he works with it just as well as Andy Serkis does on a regular basis and very much succeeds in making the BFG a very endearing character and one that very much lives up to his title as a ‘big and friendly’ giant. As Sophie, this film marks the film debut of Ruby Barnhill and she makes a pretty darn excellent first impression. Conveying a great amount of maturity and spunk for her age, she also does a really good job in regards to making her interactions with characters created via motion-capture feel as real as possible. Rylance and Barnhill work off of each other extremely well and you can definitely sense the great friendship that emerges between them. Because Sophie and the BFG are the main focus of the film, other characters aren’t really given as much to do. The ones who arguably get stunted the most are actually the villainous giants. Sure they may seem intimidating, and for the most part they are in terms of how they tower over both Sophie and the BFG, but the film really doesn’t do much with them, which is probably an example of how the film eschews plenty of the story’s darker elements. And of the lot, the only one who gets any major amount of screen-time is Jemaine Clement’s Fleshlumpeater.  

The BFG is Steven Spielberg’s first live-action family flick in quite some time, as he’s come quite a long way since his days working on E.T., now helming Oscar-winning adult dramas like Bridge of Spies and Schindler’s List. One could say that this film is very much reminiscent of E.T. in terms of its overall light-hearted tone and charm. In this case, it certainly helps that Spielberg gets to use the imaginative worlds and characters of Roald Dahl and while the film may not entirely please fans of the book due to its more toned-down nature, it still very much captures the fantastical imagery of Dahl’s story to a fault. And while there may be some plot issues, namely in the form of its underdeveloped villains, the film itself is exactly what you would expect from a Spielberg in terms of how well-made it is on pretty much every level, from the visuals to the editing to the cinematography and so on and so forth. Clearly Spielberg set out to make a very charming and imaginative family film a la E.T. and he very much succeeded in that regard. As a result, families will no doubt get a kick out of Spielberg’s latest offering. Heck, pretty much any Spielberg film is worth checking out in theaters if you ask me. As for this film, I have the feeling that kids will probably get more out of it than adults but no matter what, it’s still very much a whizz-popping good time for all.

Rating: 4.5/5

Bridge of Spies (2015) review

What can be said about Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks that hasn’t been said before? They’re two of the biggest and most beloved names in the film industry and in 1998, the two teamed up for the first time for that year’s highly acclaimed war drama, ‘Saving Private Ryan’. Since then, Hanks has starred in two other Spielberg films, 2002’s ‘Catch Me if You Can’ and 2004’s ‘The Terminal’, and the two of them also co-produced a pair of WWII-set HBO miniseries in 2001’s ‘Band of Brothers’ and 2010’s ‘The Pacific’. One whole decade after their last film collaboration ‘The Terminal’, Hanks and Spielberg re-unite again on the big screen in the latter’s latest directorial effort, ‘Bridge of Spies’. Co-written by another famous duo, the Coen Brothers, ‘Bridge of Spies’ sees the duo of Hanks and Spielberg take on a different war; the Cold War. This film tells the true story of the 1960 U-2 incident in which lawyer James B. Donovan negotiated the prisoner exchange of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and Soviet spy Rudolf Abel after he had previously defended the latter in court and, most importantly, kept him from getting a death sentence. And ultimately while the film can be a bit dry at times, there’s still no denying the masterclass effort that comes from Spielberg’s direction, the performances of its two main leads, and this film’s excellent representation of what life was like during the Cold War.

The year is 1957 with both the U.S. and Russia firmly locked into the paranoia of the Cold War as each anticipate/fear a potential nuclear attack from either side. In Brooklyn, Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance) is arrested by police on the charge of being a Soviet spy. With the intention of at least giving Abel a fair trial so that it won’t come across as some sort of Soviet propaganda, insurance lawyer James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) is tasked with being Abel’s lawyer in court. Despite the clear fact that Abel will be convicted as well as the backlash that he ends up facing from the American people for defending Abel in court, Donovan takes on the case and while he ultimately does lose it, he manages to convince the Judge to lower Abel’s sentence from a death sentence so that he could one day be useful in the case that the U.S. needs to bargain with the Soviet Union. Sure enough, that day comes when pilot Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) gets shot down in the Soviet Union while undertaking a reconnaissance mission for the CIA. This results in Donovan being sent to East Berlin as a ‘neutral negotiator’ in a prisoner exchange involving Powers and Abel, which gets a bit more complicated when another American, student Frederic Pryor, also gets captured, in this case by East Germany in the midst of the construction of the Berlin Wall, on spy charges.

Watching this film, there’s no denying the strength of Spielberg’s direction; how he constructs his scenes and how they are paced. Everything that you can normally expect from a Spielberg film is here from the excellent cinematography by Spielberg regular Janusz Kaminski to a majestic score which in this case was not done by Spielberg’s go-to composer John Williams but by Thomas Newman instead. Spielberg also really excels in establishing the ‘Cold War’ atmosphere and the paranoia that came from both sides of this conflict, especially in the U.S. as shown through how Donovan is initially viewed as a social pariah amongst his fellow citizens for defending a ‘traitor’ in court. All of this, for the most part, makes up for the film’s primary issue and that is that it admittedly drags at times and other times can come off a bit dry. Now obviously because this takes place in the Cold War, the film is more focused on politics than it is about the action. For the record, this film does manage to be engaging from beginning to end, primarily due to its strong morals as displayed by Donovan, but ultimately for what’s classified a thriller, there’s not that much tension because we know what’s going to happen and Donovan is never in any real danger. That and, even for a film that’s 141 minutes long, it has to cover quite a lot of ground. It’s basically two stories in one; Donovan’s defense of Abel in court and his subsequent negotiations to get back Powers and Pryor.

Tom Hanks is, well, Tom Hanks. He’s practically a national treasure at this point. You know that he’s going to be good no matter what, especially in a Spielberg film, and of course he’s excellent here as the Atticus Finch-esque Donovan. In a country that, at the time, was broiled in the politics of the Cold War, Donovan worked to preserve the ideals of the Constitution (AKA ‘The Rulebook’ as he illustrates in a scene in which he’s talking with a member of the CIA) even during a case he clearly wasn’t going to win. Donovan may not be a particularly deep lead character but Hanks imbues him with the everyman quality that he is so great at doing, making him very likable through and through. Hanks is backed up by a solid supporting cast that also includes Amy Ryan as Donovan’s wife and Alan Alda as his legal partner Thomas Watters but the biggest standout of the film ends up being Mark Rylance as Rudolf Abel. Rylance plays the role with a quiet thoughtfulness and, in a way, a bit of an unsuspecting nature as Abel is only once shown to do anything spy-related. Like Donovan, Abel stays true to his morals as he refuses to become an ally of the United States government even though that would help him get out of his current predicament as a prisoner of the United States. I can definitely see why Spielberg casted Rylance in the lead role/titular character of his next film, his adaptation of Roald Dahl’s ‘The BFG’, because this is easily one of the best performances that I’ve seen this entire year.

I can’t really say that ‘Bridge of Spies’ is one of Spielberg’s best films, even though it’s certainly been getting some of the best reviews of any film that he’s ever directed. The film does do its job in recreating the world of the Cold War as well as the paranoia and fear that came from this part of U.S. history through the eyes of a man who fought to preserve the country’s morals even if it made him an outcast in his home country. It’s just that, even for a film that’s over two and a half hours long, it has to basically cover two stories in that runtime; the case of Rudolf Abel and the prisoner exchange for Francis Gary Powers. And as a result, the film admittedly can be both a bit dry and a bit overlong at times and there’s not as much tension as it wants to have. But at the end of the day, this is still a Steven Spielberg film and you can always expect a well-crafted and well-directed effort whenever he’s behind the camera. As some of you might have guessed from an earlier analogy that I made, the story of James B. Donovan and Rudolf Abel reminded me of ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Donovan is basically this story’s ‘Atticus Finch’ as both display the same morals from a political and human standpoint. So in short, while I can’t really list this as one of my favorite films of this year, ‘Bridge of Spies’ definitely delivers when it comes to being the kind of film that you’d expect to see from Steven Spielberg.

Rating: 4/5

Jurassic World (2015) review

In 1993, Steven Spielberg brought Michael Crichton’s best-selling sci-fi novel/cautionary tale ‘Jurassic Park’ to the big screen and of course we all know how it turned out. It ended up becoming one of the most revered films of its time while also setting major landmarks in the use of CGI for the film’s dinosaur creatures. It was followed by two sequels that were both commercially successful, although neither film was as beloved amongst critics and audiences as much as the first film. Now, 14 years after ‘Jurassic Park III’ was released in 2001, and after a considerably long period of what can only be described as ‘development hell’, primarily due to script re-writes, director Colin Trevorrow, fresh off of his 2012 indie hit ‘Safety Not Guaranteed’, returns us to the world of ‘Jurassic Park’, both figuratively and literally due to the fact that it takes place on the same island that the first film took place on, with ‘Jurassic World’. And boy is it one hell of an experience. Now let me just make things clear for a second. At the end of the day, I can’t say that this is an absolutely ‘perfect’ film, nor can I say that it’s technically ‘as good’ as the first film. For the record, I’m not holding this against ‘Jurassic World’. It’s just that, obviously, the first film is such a hard act to follow. But not only does ‘Jurassic World’ pay loving respect to the original film that it’s following up on but it also delivers on exactly what we came to see; awesome dinosaur-related action. And in that regard, the film doesn’t disappoint in the slightest.  

22 years after the original incident on the Costa Rican island of Isla Nublar regarding John Hammond’s genetically-cloned dinosaur theme park Jurassic Park, a new fully-functioning dinosaur theme park now named Jurassic World, run by operations manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard) and owned by Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan) of the Masrani Corporation, has been built, embodying Hammond’s original vision for Jurassic Park. When general interest in the park begins to drop due to the apparently decreasing ‘wow factor’ of the dinosaur exhibits, the park’s scientists create a new genetically modified dinosaur, referred to as an ‘Indominus Rex’, out of a hybrid of various bits of animal DNA (e.g. cuttlefish, T-Rex, etc.) as a way to attract more guests to the park. However, a few weeks before the new exhibit is set to open, the new dinosaur ends up breaking out of its enclosure and starts rampaging across the island, resulting in Claire, her two nephews Zach (Nick Robinson) and Gray (Ty Simpkins), who are visiting the park, and Velociraptor trainer Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) getting caught right in the middle of the situation as they and the rest of the ‘Jurassic World’ staff try to stop this new menace before it ends up terrorizing the park visitors.

I’m just going to put it bluntly; this is not one of those films that is going to get any major attention come award season for its writing. After all, this is a sci-fi film about genetically-engineered dinosaurs that run amok… and that’s basically it. It’s definitely not the ‘smartest’ sci-fi film ever written but then again, neither were the other films for that matter. Ultimately, these films are just meant to be entertaining popcorn flicks and ‘Jurassic World’ definitely succeeds in that regard thanks to Trevorrow’s solid direction. There are numerous awesome dinosaur-related action sequences throughout this film. I mean for crying out loud this is a film where Chris Pratt’s character leads a pack of trained velociraptors into combat on a motorcycle, plus plenty more awesome moments that I won’t spoil here for anyone who hasn’t seen the film yet. All in all, ‘Jurassic World’ definitely feels like a true sequel to the original film (‘The Lost World’ and ‘Jurassic Park III’ were mostly ignored here). Trevorrow subtly pays homage to ‘Jurassic Park’ from time to time while also managing to still make this film feel new and not just a re-hash of the original film. And the effects are still as solid as they’ve ever been, even if at this point they’re mostly CGI with only about one major use of animatronic effects, the latter of which has been a major trademark of the franchise.  

On that note, a common criticism of the series has been that while the effects have always been superb, the same can’t be said for character development. And like every other film in the series (yes, even the first film in some cases), that’s definitely true in regards to some of the characters in the film, like Vincent D’Onofrio’s character Vic Hoskins, the head of security for InGen who apparently was meant to be the human antagonist but ends up being one of those ‘villains’ that doesn’t actually do anything ‘villainous’, which is rather disappointing given D’Onofrio’s excellent turn recently as the main antagonist Wilson Fisk in ‘Daredevil’. But despite that, and some other throwaway characters, the film’s four main leads all do excellent jobs. Chris Pratt, after the hot year that he had in 2014 thanks to ‘The LEGO Movie’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, continues to prove himself to be a Grade-A leading man in the role of Owen, who let me remind you commands a whole pack of raptors. The role is generally more serious compared to Pratt’s usual comedic roles but he still manages to maintain his natural charisma. Bryce Dallas Howard is also a major standout as well as Claire who at first may seem like nothing more than, to paraphrase a tweet by Joss Whedon in regards to the film’s first official clip, a workaholic ‘stiff’ but then turns out to be quite a badass in her own right by the end. Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins both do excellent jobs as well as brothers Zach and Gray and there are actually some really sweet bonding moments between the two in the latter half of the film amidst all of the chaos going on.

While ‘Jurassic World’ was easily one of the most anticipated films of 2015 for many people, at the same time I found that many other people online were questioning about various aspects of the film, including the whole plot of a genetically-engineered hybrid dinosaur and the aforementioned trained Velociraptor pack, among other things. So going into this film, I ignored all of the noise from the internet and by the end of the film, came out fully satisfied by what I had saw. Simply put, ‘Jurassic World’ is hella fun. No, it may not be the most well-written/smartest sci-fi film ever made but really what do you expect from a series that is based around dinosaurs brought back to life by genetics? But even with that in mind, ‘Jurassic World’, like the original ‘Jurassic Park’, and hell I’ll even argue ‘The Lost World’, succeeds by just being incredibly entertaining with awesome action sequences involving dinosaurs, solid visuals, and a solid cast headlined by standout performances by leads Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, and Nick Robinson, even if most of the other characters are generally underdeveloped and are really nothing more than just ‘dino chow’. And most importantly, ‘Jurassic World’ feels like a true sequel to ‘Jurassic Park’. It may not be as ‘ground-breaking’ as the original film but it definitely stands as the best of the sequels to date and one of the most enjoyable summer blockbusters of 2015 so far.

Rating: 4/5

Jurassic Park Trilogy (1993-2001) review

With the new ‘Jurassic Park’ film, ‘Jurassic World’, coming out this week, it’s the perfect time to look back upon the original trilogy of films that it spawned from. It all began not on the big screen but on the page in 1990 when Chicago, IL born author Michael Crichton published his ‘cautionary tale’ science fiction novel, ‘Jurassic Park’. It became a best-seller and three years later, legendary director Steven Spielberg brought Crichton’s story to film. That film ended up becoming one of the most iconic films of its time while also being responsible for setting landmarks in the use of CGI. During its initial release, it grossed over $900 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of all time until ‘Titanic’ ended up beating that record four years later and becoming the first film to gross over $1 billion. But ‘Jurassic Park’ would eventually join the billion dollar club as well thanks to two separate re-releases in 2011 and 2013, the latter being a special 3-D re-release. The film would then be followed by two sequels in 1997 and 2001. The former was a result of fans demanding that Crichton and Spielberg make a sequel while the third film, not directed by Spielberg, was an original story inspired by story elements that were unused in the last two films. However, both films, while financially successful, didn’t fare as well with critics and audiences compared to the first film. But are either of these films ‘as bad’ as some put them out to be? That’s what we’ll be finding out today as I look back upon the soon-to-be quadrilogy that is ‘65 million years in the making’; the ‘Jurassic Park’ trilogy.

JURASSIC PARK (1993)

Really what more is there to be said about this film that hasn’t already been said before? We all know how this summer blockbuster from the master director that is Steven Spielberg became one of the most iconic films of all-time and was responsible for revolutionizing the use of CGI, which in the case of this film actually does still hold up pretty darn well today. All of this results in some truly amazing visuals that produce both awe and, in some cases, terror at the same time. But as Spielberg noted in behind-the-scenes videos for the film, his goal wasn’t to make a ‘monster movie’. Instead, there’s a more naturalistic feel to these dinosaurs and that is where the film’s sense of terror really shines. Now some critics have noted that while the effects are amazing, the character development for the film isn’t as strong. Now I don’t 100% agree with that, even though I will concur that there are definitely some characters that don’t get anything to do in the story. But then you have the main group of characters and they’re pretty memorable; Sam Neill as the initially gruff Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as fellow scientist Ellie Sattler (who gets more to do in the film than in the original novel, making her a pretty badass female lead), Richard Attenborough as the misguided but kind creator of Jurassic Park John Hammond (another nice change from the colder persona the character had in the book), and of course Jeff Goldblum as, well, arguably the standout character of the film, Ian Malcolm (“That’s, that’s chaos theory.”). Even 22 years after its initial release, the original ‘Jurassic Park’ still stands as one of the best films of its time, effectively capturing the imaginations of all who watch it.

Rating: 5/5!

JURASSIC PARK: THE LOST WORLD (1997)

After the massive success of ‘Jurassic Park’, both Steven Spielberg and Michael Crichton were pressured by fans to make a sequel. So in 1995, Crichton published ‘The Lost World’ and two years later, Spielberg adapted it to film. This time around, instead of a dinosaur ‘theme park’, the story revolved around an expedition to a secondary island where the dinosaurs were originally engineered, Isla Sorna (AKA ‘Site B’). However, it seems that all that fan pressure may have hurt the film in the end as ‘The Lost World’ didn’t fare as well with critics and audiences. However, I think it’s actually rather underrated. Now I’m not saying that it’s ‘as good’ as the first film. The writing is not really as strong as before, the characters aren’t ‘as memorable’ as those in the first film, and there are a few instances where they make stupid decisions that more or less directly result in trouble, like taking a baby T-Rex, even though they’re trying to help fix its broken leg, resulting in the ‘parents’ coming after them. Still, despite all that, ‘The Lost World’ still manages to capture the same sense of awe and terror that the first film did so well. There are still quite a lot of pretty awesome dinosaur-related sequences, from the scene where the main characters are trapped in an RV that is about to go over a cliff to the climax where a T-Rex is brought back to the United States and goes on a rampage through San Diego. So in the end, ‘The Lost World’ may not reach the same lofty heights of the original film, but it definitely is better than what the internet puts it out to be. Spielberg’s direction is still as good as it’s ever been and the effects are still excellent. Bottom line; this is definitely one of the more underrated films of the 90’s… I mean if anything it’s better than its sequel (you’ll see why in just a sec).

Rating: 4/5

JURASSIC PARK III (2001)

For the third film in the series, Joe Johnston (‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, ‘The Rocketeer’) took over directing duties from Spielberg and instead of being based off of a book by Michael Crichton, the film instead was an original story that used elements of the previous two novels that weren’t used in the films, like an attack sequence on a river and a sequence involving Pteranodons. But like its immediate predecessors, ‘Jurassic Park III’ fared poorly with critics and audiences. And unlike ‘The Lost World’, I kind of have to concur with them on this one. ‘Jurassic Park III’ definitely is the weakest of the franchise. It has the least memorable characters in the series and, for the most part, none of the major set-pieces in the film really stand out that much. So in short, ‘Jurassic Park III’ is the least memorable installment of the franchise… but I don’t really ‘hate’ it. I mean, this was actually the first ‘Jurassic Park’ film that I ever saw. I saw it at a friend’s house when I was about six (yes, I watched a PG-13 rated film at that age) so I do have a bit of a personal connection to it. While I don’t necessarily like it as much nowadays, there are still some good things about it. There are two major standouts in the cast. The first is, of course, Sam Neill, whose return to the franchise as Dr. Alan Grant is very much welcome. The other is Trevor Morgan as Eric, a young kid who is shown to have survived on Isla Sorna for eight weeks after a parasailing incident ended up with him getting lost on the island, hence why the main plot of the film revolves around Grant being brought to the island by Eric’s parents in order to rescue him. The practical dinosaur animatronic effects are still pretty darn good… the CGI not as much this time around, but it’s not that big of a deal. And at the end of the day, ‘Jurassic Park III’ is the shortest entry of the series at just 93 minutes so it’s not overlong. So in short, ‘Jurassic Park III’ may be the most forgettable installment of the series, but I still enjoy it for the most part.

Rating: 2.5/5